I'd call 311 about the poor lane markings.  They've worn off over the past few years.  They're should be signs posted above the lanes indicatging what action is legal for each lane.  You could even suggest to the city that as this is a yearly bike detour (each winter) that a dedicated bike left hand turn lane could be helpful to both motorista and cyclists.

There is also a MUP on the right of the road, so you can ride on the bike path, cross on the crosswalk and remount and ride across the bridge.  I've done this when the zoo is detoured.  Personally I prefer the zoo bike path, but you do have to be careful on the two blindish corners.  

If it's far enough north, and since you obviously don't mind climbing and then descending the hill, you could head north until 18th or 20th avenue, take this east to where a connector path drops down to Nose Creek *just* north of 16th avenue and take the continuation of this to the Deerfoot pedestrian overpass, which gets you out by the Sun building (just south of 32nd Avenue). There are east-heading pathways a little south of this, but they don't get you super far (almost to Barlow, though).

For my money, the Nose Creek/Zoo combo (at least from the Airport to Downtown) is pretty good and fast -- no hills, pretty un-busy.

I tried Bridgeland today: cross Memorial at Edmonton Tr -- there's a short pathway at the NE corner that takes you to McDougal Rd. Then it's a straight shot to 12 Ave SE -- nice calm ride, speed limit is 30 kmh the entire stretch, no hills, few stop signs.  At 12 Ave NE you can go up the hill on the road and turn left onto St George's Drive, then cut across to the Nose Creek pathway just before the Science Centre.  Not as pretty as the Zoo pathway, but you don't have to ride next to Memorial, and in the winter it's probably better lit.  If you don't want to go to 8 Ave across Deerfoot but instead take the overpass and go up to Max Bell or Franklin LRT stations, you can probably find a way through the Zoo parking lot to get to the pathway.